What Does Luke 8:2 Mean?
And certain women, who had been healed of harmful breaths and weaknesses, Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils,THE KEY
Luke’s word for “healed” belongs to a Greek family meaning both to care for and to heal, so restoration appears as care reaching what has been harmed.
THE MEANING
The verse names affliction without making it the whole identity of the person: Mary remains named, and the seven demons are what have gone out from her. For the reader now, it opens a distinction between a person and what has afflicted or weakened them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that an affliction is a person’s identity: Mary is named, while what leaves her is named as something distinct.
THE ROOT
τεθεραπευμέναι
tetherapeumenai
GROWS FROM
θεραπευ-
To care for, attend to, or heal.
The Greek family behind “healed” also carries the sense of attending to or caring for. Healing here is more than a label for an illness ending; the word lets care and restoration remain joined.
ALSO GROWS
therapeuō: To care for, attend to, or heal.
θεραπεύω
This is the verb family behind the verse’s “healed,” holding care and healing together.
therapeia: Care, treatment, or healing.
θεραπεία
The related noun names the care or healing itself, showing that the verse’s word belongs to a broader language of tending.
therapeutēs: An attendant or healer.
θεραπευτής
This related word names one who attends or cares, echoing the attentive quality within the verse’s word for healing.
πνευμάτων
pneumatōn
GROWS FROM
πνευ-
Breath, wind, or moving air; the Greek word family also includes “spirit.”
“harmful breaths” in this verse is pneumatōn. The Greek family carries breath, wind, and spirit within one range, while English “spirits” can hide that connection. Here the breath is called evil and appears alongside bodily infirmities, naming affliction that reaches inward and physical life.
ALSO GROWS
pneuma: Breath, wind, or spirit.
πνεῦμα
This is the singular form behind “spirits,” and it keeps the breath and wind meanings in view.
pneō: To breathe or blow.
πνέω
This verb shares the breath-and-wind family, making the physical motion audible beneath the translated word.
pnoē: Breath or a blowing.
πνοή
This related noun names breath directly and illuminates the range English “spirits” can conceal.
ἀσθενειῶν
astheneiōn
GROWS FROM
ἀσθεν-
Weakness or lack of strength.
“weaknesses” in this verse is astheneiōn. The word translated “infirmities” belongs to a family that names weakness as well as illness. Beside the evil breaths, it describes bodily vulnerability as another form of affliction from which these women are healed.
ALSO GROWS
asthenēs: Weak or without strength.
ἀσθενής
This related adjective shows the weakness contained in the verse’s word for infirmities.
astheneō: To be weak or ill.
ἀσθενέω
This verb names the state of weakness or illness that the verse’s noun also carries.
astheneia: Weakness, infirmity, or illness.
ἀσθένεια
This related noun is the singular form of the word used in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Healing appears as release from forces that diminish or bind a person’s life.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her, "Woman, you have been unbound from your weakness."How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Set-Apart Breath and with power, who went through, doing good and healing all who were pressed down by the Slanderer, for God was with him.THE THREAD
And the crowds, when they knew it, followed him, and he received them, and spoke to them of the governance of God, and healed those who had need of healing.Luke uses the same θεραπευ- word family for healing here and for those who need healing in the connected verse. Its sense of care and attendance places Mary’s healing within a wider pattern of people received and tended.
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